So with Europe cleaning up its banks and tech stocks reaching rich valuations, a reversal was bound to come eventually.

What’s more intriguing is the shape of European sector performance of the past year. Autos was the strongest sector, boosted by signs of life in the euro-zone economy and helped further by falling yields, which aids heavily-indebted companies. Insurers were also strong performers, lifted, among other things, by equity market gains.

Laggards included food and beverages, possibly as interest switched out of staples amid signs of economic revival, and basic resources, hit by concerns of a China slowdown.